ChivalRuse
Smash Hero
So Kirby's up-b (a.k.a., Final Cutter) is an interesting move. We all should know by now that if you get hit in midair after using it, you lose all 5 of your extra jumps. Risky? Oui.
However, I believe there are a few situations that justify using it onstage for other purposes besides recovering to the level.
1.
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If Ice Climbers give you enough room to use it. Why? Because up-b's projectile hitbox has a slow enough speed that if you happen to catch both Ice Climbers, it will juggle them both repeatedly for a lot of damage, and potentially put them offstage. Now, the caveat is that you have to space it perfectly, otherwise you can get punished via wavedash out of shield to grab or other painful options. But Final Cutter has a deceptively high amount of shield stun, so if you space it well, you won't necessarily get punished out of shield.
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2. Vs floaties as an anti-air. Think of this as your standard dash dance tactic. You have your opponent in the air falling with an aerial and can dash dance grab them in a lot of circumstances. The advantages of using up-b out of a dash dance instead of grab is that Kirby's grab doesn't do much to floaties, other than put them in the air, which is not terribly useful if there is a top platform for their recourse. Final Cutter, on the other hand, does 15%, it picks them up and puts them back on the ground in a knockdown state, and gives you some frame advantage. It's not so easy to tech either, because the victim, once sucked into the up-b vacuum, actually descends back toward the ground slower than Kirby does.
I was messing around against a Luigi player on netplay this week. I was able to up-throw the Luigi, bait out his falling nair, and hit him with up-b to reground him > jab reset > and from there I forget if I up-smashed, grabbed, or up-b'd again. The point is, Kirby's punish game is pretty bad, and I think Final Cutter is worth taking a look in specific situations (especially vs floaties, who get sucked into it more easily) to improve his punishes.
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However, I believe there are a few situations that justify using it onstage for other purposes besides recovering to the level.
1.
><
If Ice Climbers give you enough room to use it. Why? Because up-b's projectile hitbox has a slow enough speed that if you happen to catch both Ice Climbers, it will juggle them both repeatedly for a lot of damage, and potentially put them offstage. Now, the caveat is that you have to space it perfectly, otherwise you can get punished via wavedash out of shield to grab or other painful options. But Final Cutter has a deceptively high amount of shield stun, so if you space it well, you won't necessarily get punished out of shield.
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2. Vs floaties as an anti-air. Think of this as your standard dash dance tactic. You have your opponent in the air falling with an aerial and can dash dance grab them in a lot of circumstances. The advantages of using up-b out of a dash dance instead of grab is that Kirby's grab doesn't do much to floaties, other than put them in the air, which is not terribly useful if there is a top platform for their recourse. Final Cutter, on the other hand, does 15%, it picks them up and puts them back on the ground in a knockdown state, and gives you some frame advantage. It's not so easy to tech either, because the victim, once sucked into the up-b vacuum, actually descends back toward the ground slower than Kirby does.
I was messing around against a Luigi player on netplay this week. I was able to up-throw the Luigi, bait out his falling nair, and hit him with up-b to reground him > jab reset > and from there I forget if I up-smashed, grabbed, or up-b'd again. The point is, Kirby's punish game is pretty bad, and I think Final Cutter is worth taking a look in specific situations (especially vs floaties, who get sucked into it more easily) to improve his punishes.
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